This winter, New Hampshire was visited by an unusual bird, in great numbers.
Bohemian Waxwings were seen in flocks as large as 1600 birds.
March 5, 2004: Bohemian Waxwings
I'm Iain MacLeod from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, and this is Something Wild.
One of the most fun things about watching birds is how different it can beevery year. Sure, you get a lot of the same birds, but there's almost always a twist. This winter, the twist came late, but it was big: we are inundated with Bohemian Waxwings.
These birds breed in Canada, but they travel far and wide - and erratically - during the winter. Their freewheeling winter lifestyle has earned them their name.
We usually see these waxwings every other year or so in northern New England, so we were sort of expecting them. There were a few in the early winter, but just a few, so birders thought it was going to be an off-year after all. Then, in late January, people started to see huge flocks - and I mean huge. Reports of 400 birds at a time weren't unusual, and one flock had more than 1600 birds. It's been the most Bohemians we've seen in at least ten years.
We have another kind of waxwing that is a year-round resident of New Hampshire: the Cedar Waxwing, and it can be hard for people to tell the two apart. Both are about the same size and shape as a cardinal. Bohemians have white and yellow markings on their wings, as well as a rusty color on the undersides of their tails. And some people thing that Bohemians' eye markings remind them of sunglasses!
The Waxwing call is distinctive. Here's the Cedar Waxwing call, and the Bohemian call is quite similar.
Look for both in the tops of trees. They often hang out together, so you can also see flocks of both kinds - sometimes with some robins mixed in.
Both waxwings eat a lot of fruit, so if you have crabapples, mountain ash, or any other winter berry, you have a great chance of attracting these beauties. And, from the sounds of other reports, lots of them this year!
Something Wild is a joint production of the Audubon Society of New
Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the
Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain
MacLeod.
If you have a natural history question that you would like answered on Something Wild, email us at somethingwild@ nhpr.org.
